Children are the least protected members of society. Where should they go when wars or floods start? Fortunately, there is an answer to this question and it lies in the Crimea.
A few weeks ago two planeloads carrying 200 children caught up in the Russian-Georgian war in South Ossetia arrived at Simferopol Airport. The children were brought to the Crimea in keeping with the edict issued by Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko on Aug. 20, 2008, and at the request of Ukraine’s Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports Affairs, which organized the Georgian children’s stay at the Merkurii Medical Rehabilitation Center in Yevpatoria between Aug. 28 and Sept. 18, 2008.
The catastrophic aftermath of the natural disasters in a number of Ukraine’s western oblasts, as a result of which many families with children lost their homes, sparked a sympathetic response among many residents of the Crimea. Between Aug. 7 and 27, 2008, 870 children from the flooded regions vacationed at the Artek Resort in Yevpatoria.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports Affairs, over 15,000 children in western Ukraine still need help from the government. More groups of children from the flooded regions will be brought to Yevpatoria and the health resorts based on the eastern coast of the Crimea, announced Volodymyr Saveliev, Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Crimea. The minister noted that the process of forming children’s groups slated for Crimean health resorts in Kerch and other areas is continuing.
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Speaker Arsenii Yatseniuk recently visited the Nyzhnia Oreanda Resort in Yalta, where 50 children from 6 western oblasts of Ukraine are vacationing. He talked to the children and their teachers, who accompanied them to the resorts. After inquiring about the children’s health and their impressions of the Crimea, Yatseniuk gave each of them a package with the inscription “Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” which contained a baseball cap and a T-shirt from his Open Ukraine Foundation.
During a special press conference the speaker of the Ukrainian parliament expressed his regret that the children were not able to come to the Crimean seaside earlier. “I am truly sorry that these children came to the seashore only because of a tragedy. My question is: where is the much-vaunted system of social protection, social guarantees, and children’s vacation opportunities? Should half of Ukraine become submerged under water so that children can come to the seashore?”
Yatseniuk noted the excellent accommodations at the Nyzhnia Oreanda, where the children have six meals a day, a diverse cultural program, and access to a private beach, away from tourists. “The main thing is that the children are housed in a separate building under constant supervision. They are fed properly and given lots of exercise. They also take part in lessons and to on excursions. We have created a packed program for these children. They have a separate beach, where they and their chaperones or parents can have fun and feel good,” the head of the Verkhovna Rada underlined.
In late August the Crimea also welcomed 60 refugees from South Ossetia, Oleh Rodyvilov, a member of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Crimea, told journalists. The children from South Ossetia and their parents are staying at a resort in Velyka Alushta. “We invited 60 people, but the Ukrainian state will not be subsidizing their transportation here because the government of North Ossetia provided them with transport, while we took it upon ourselves to house and feed them, and organize their departure home,” Rodyvilov said.
Besides state government bodies and officials, civic organizations and ordinary residents of the Crimea of different nationalities are taking care of the children who were affected by the recent upheavals. The Crimean-Tatar Majlis told The Day that 20 children from the flooded raion of Novoselytsia in Chernivtsi oblast have been staying with Crimean-Tatar families in Bakhchysarai for nearly three weeks. The children will visit cultural sites and spend their vacation on the Black Sea coast. The leaders of the Majlis and families of Crimean Tatars welcomed the group pupils attending grades 1 to 11 at the Marshynets School at Bakhchysarai’s Ashlama-Sarai complex located near the Zyndzhyrly Medrese, an area filled with the historical, architectural, and cultural monuments of the Crimean Tatar people.
This is the first time that the children from Chernivtsi oblast are visiting the Crimea. They are overjoyed at the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the history and culture of the peninsula and to spend time on the Black Sea. This vacation will be a real “university of international communication” for them. The pupils from Marshynets High School said that they want to start learning the Crimean-Tatar language during their stay in the Crimea.
“At school we study Ukrainian, Russian, Moldovan, and French, but we know that educated children should know the language of the people who offer them help and support in difficult times,” they say. The families that are housing the children have promised to ensure that their young guests have a good vacation and to show them as much of the area as possible. Some even said they would teach 12 girls from the group to cook the national dishes of the Crimean Tatars.
